


Confessions on a Starry Night

by Skyler10



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Confessions, Date Night, F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-24 23:57:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6171844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyler10/pseuds/Skyler10
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s time to talk about the “in between” time – what happened while they were apart. Rose and Tentoo confess to each other about their kisses with other people, including Tentoo telling Rose about a few of the events of Human Nature. To make up for it, he mentions why this regeneration turned out to be a pretty boy with a London accent.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Confessions on a Starry Night

**Author's Note:**

> After all, if these two are selfish or jealous, it’s only because of their love for each other. And their ability to flirt until the end of time itself. Linking up with @timepetalsprompts for this week’s ficlet – “in between.”

One night lying under the stars, the conversation came up. He knew it would eventually, but so far he’d been lucky enough that they had time to build their relationship first. Gone were the days of hesitant insecurity and relearning each other, discovering how the other had changed. These were the honeymoon days and nights of shameless flirting and open adoration. But now was time for the questions neither really wanted answers to.

“So. Jacob, was it?” the Doctor began. Best to barrel in right away. Rip off the plaster.

“Hm?” Rose startled from her relaxed cuddle against his shoulder. She leaned up on her elbow to read his expression.

“Today I asked the boys at work if they had been to that Italian place on the corner.”

“Near the river?”

“Yeah. They got funny looks on their faces. Said you’d already been.”

“Oh.”

“Wanna tell me about it? You don’t have to. I understand, you know. It was a long time. You were alone. Here. A new universe. No reason you wouldn’t. After all, you’re gorgeous and clever and there must have been loads of offers. Only makes sense…”

“Doctor.” Rose stopped his babbling with a hand on his chest. “Mum set me up. He was fresh from uni, new in town. I knew what that was like, not knowing anyone. It was one date.”

He was silent, but she could feel his muscles relax under her touch.

“He kissed me goodnight,” she continued after a moment of hesitation. “I told him I was sorry and ran inside, poor bloke. But that moment. It… it was like losing you all over again.”

“Oh, Rose.” He thought this discussion would end in unwarranted jealousy for him, but instead all he felt was heartache for her.

“I cried all weekend.” Her tiny rueful exhale of a laugh was meant to be self-deprecating, but it just dug the knife in further into his heart. “Broke it off through a text. Crushed his hopes of a relationship quite suddenly, I suppose. But I think he knew anyway.”

“And he was the only one?” the Doctor mused to lift the mood. “I’m disappointed in this London’s men. No courage at all.”

“Well. A few more tried. Had to kiss Jake on a dare once, but as you can guess, neither of us particularly enjoyed it.”

The Doctor laughed with her, though talking about their time apart was always a heavy shadow to bring to light.

“Besides that, I was so busy building the cannon, I barely had time to sleep, much less date. ‘S why my friends are mostly just the team from the project… I think they all could see it, yeah? I was physically here, but the rest of me was a dimension away.”

He only hummed in understanding and held her closer against the bite of the cold night air.

“How ‘bout you, then?” she asked in return.

“What?”

“How many courtesans snogged you while I wasn’t there to smack ‘em?”Her laugh and wink reassured him, though he knew there was serious intent behind her teasing tone.

“Well, no courtesans.”

“Alright, blondes then.”

“What?!”

“You have a type.” She shrugged in acceptance. She waited for his answer, though. Her patient gaze left no room for wiggling out of it, especially since he brought up the topic.

“I told you about Astrid, remember?”

“Oh, yes.” Rose instantly felt guilty for her teasing at the memory of the sad story of the Titanic. Christmas hadn’t ever been easy for him, and this year she had caught him brooding a bit in a quiet moment. He had shared the past few years’ holidays that she had missed to help her understand that it wasn’t being here with her that he was sad about. Just memories. She hadn’t really been jealous then when she heard of his last real kiss before being back with her. 

“Only one?” she echoed his earlier question, but with more disbelief than teasing.

“No, actually. I had to do something I never thought I would do. I was facing an enemy that was hunting me for my lifespan. I used a machine on the TARDIS to become human. Hid my true identity in a fob watch and Martha… Well, let’s just say it wasn’t the happiest of assignments for her. She was a good friend.”

“So you kissed her?” Rose worked hard to keep any petty possessiveness out of her voice. She was grateful to Martha, of course, but there was something intimidating about being replaced as a companion by a brave, self-sacrificing medical student.

“Umm, no. Not her. A nurse at a school I – that is, John Smith – was teaching in. It was 1913 so it was all very proper compared to your time.” His pointed look was her cue to relax against him as he had earlier at her “only one date” revelation.

“And she kissed you?”

“John. He… they…. I really thought I was him. I had no memory of ever being me. Only little bits snuck through in sleep. The TARDIS, our adventures, my past faces, past enemies… You. You haunted my dreams, Rose. His dreams. Even as he was getting, um, attached to this nurse. He thought he made you up. Wrote it all down in a book of fanciful tales.”

He panicked a bit as Rose wiped at her watery eyes. Was she upset he had fallen for someone else, even though he was a thick, ignorant human at the time? _Not good, not good at all,_ his internal alarms blared. But then, as always, she surprised him.

“You forgot you were a Time Lord, forgot everything, but out of all those centuries, you remembered me?”

“Yes. Yeah, I did.”

“But John – he loved her, didn’t he? The nurse?”

“Joan. That was her name. In the end, he asked, right before he changed back, what kind of man I was that falling in love never occurred to me. He was horrified by it – the idea that I lived without love. But that’s just it. It never occurred to me or the TARDIS to write in any sort of fail-safe to prevent it because loving you – well, it’s part of who I am. Written right into this regeneration from the start. Even as John Smith, you were with me in my dreams. He just didn’t think you were real. ”

“Hold on. What do you mean _written_ into your regeneration?”

“Ah. Suppose I never explained that either. Blimey, this night’s full of revelations.”

“Go on then, Doctor, pour your heart out,” she teased with a kiss to his cheek and a squeeze of his arm. “You know it’s safe with me.”

Her curious smile flirted him through his next confession.

“Well, you know how I died saving your life because you were dying saving mine?”

“I do recall that story, yes.”

“Fortunately for me, when a Time Lord regenerates out of love for a woman who is chiefly attracted to geeky pretty boys with sideburns, this is what pops out.” He gestured to himself. “Not too bad?”

“Oh, you are full of it,” she laughed.

“Say it!” He tickled her side briefly.

She shook her head.

“C’mon… you know you want to. Say it.”

“Ohhhh, alright. That is some reaaally great hair,” she drawled as she ran her fingers through it. She would never live down the alcohol-fueled night she spent filling him in on the details of meeting Donna in her pocket universe.

“Thank you.” He beamed.

“So. You were saying. You turned out like this because of me.”

“Yep. Accent and everything.”

“I always wondered about that. Mr. ‘Lots of planets have a North.’”

He shrugged and continued.

“So, yes, there were a few _blondes,_ as you put it, along the way, and a shock from Donna, and a genetic transfer to Martha, but nothing for you to worry about.”

“You DID kiss Martha! I knew it. She liked you, you know.”

“I know,” he mumbled in guilt. “Wait, how did you know?”

“I could tell. And… she also may have mentioned it in a private conversation we had over tea on the TARDIS before we dropped her off.”

“Oooh. What else did she say?” The Doctor raised an intrigued eyebrow.

“ _Private_ conversation.”

“Right.” He paused for a beat, considering all Martha could have shared about his more embarrassing moments. “Did I mention how I was made specifically for you?”

Rose just giggled and snuggled into his side.

“Is that why you would never shut up about me?” And there it was. Yep, Martha had shared exactly what he feared she might have. “I don’t mind, you know. Better than the alternative.”

“What alternative?” He took the easy route out of that one.

“That you would never mention me. Like you did with Sarah Jane. And the others.”

“That was because of the war. We talked about this.” His tone was gruffer now, and she knew she was treading on thin ice, bringing up an ancient row.

“I know! All I’m saying is, it’s nice to know I was missed. Even if it did drive poor Martha half-mad. ‘Rose would know.’ While you’re lying right there in bed with her!”

“We didn’t do anything!”

“Believe me, I know. And taking her to New Earth! Out of all the planets, Doctor.”

“Face of Boe was there. Besides, it was… different. Not good different, before you ask.”

“I heard,” Rose sighed. “Still. Hope she finds someone. Ends up happy.”

“Got a glimpse of her timeline, just as she was leaving. And someone else’s too. Someone you know very well. Too well, in my extremely selfish opinion.” He sniffed a bit, the way he always did when talking about her ex.

“Oh my god, you’re serious? Mickey? And Martha?”

“Yep. Couldn’t see it clearly, of course, not with being only part-Time Lord now, but I’d say they both have more than earned their happiness together, wouldn’t you?”

“I… I can totally see it. Now that you mention it. Yeah.” A slow grin spread across Rose’s face. She had been a bit worried about Mickey, and maybe a bit guilty in the same way the Doctor was guilty about Martha, but knowing they were together helped.  

The two simply laid there on the blanket, enjoying the view.

“Still shocks me sometimes that we can see the stars at all,” she admitted.

“They weren’t gone that long, were they?”

“No, I mean from inside the City. There’s no way we could have had a night like this in the old London, that’s for sure.”

“Oh. Do you still miss it?” His voice was very quiet now, as if they were kids up late, whispering after lights-out at a slumber party.

“Mostly the familiarity. You know. I forget that some places are different. I’ll still take the Tube and end up at the wrong station or walk to where something used to be in the old universe.”

“Don’t feel bad about that. I’ve got an eidetic memory and I do it too. Just habit.”

“And people. Shareen. Keisha. I looked them up here, but what’s the point? They’ve never met me, and even if they did, we might as well be worlds away. They’re still on the estate, living their lives. And here I am…”

“Fighting hostile aliens? Not so different than it used to be, at least after we met.”

“No, Doctor,” she corrected gently. “Money. I’ve got money here. And it matters. Not to me, of course, but to them. It changes things. If I tried to get to know my old friends now, these girls who have never met me but who probably see my face in the gossip rags, how do you think that would go?”

“Ah.”

“Yeah. You and me, we don’t think about these things. Cause it doesn’t matter to us. But out there, it’s not the same. This London. This universe. It’s parallel, yeah. But you’ve seen it. Underneath, it’s so different.”

“I know,” he agreed and rubbed her arm in a soothing gesture. “I knew from the minute we landed here the first time.”

“Gingerbread houses, you said. Does that make you my gingerbread man?” Her pink little tongue mocked him as it poked out over her bottom lip.

“I’ve always wanted to be ginger, but that isn’t _quite_ what I meant.” He poked her side, which, of course, she returned, starting a tickle war that ended in kissing. With their mouths too occupied for flirting, their conversation of the evening had a chance to sink in. Slowly, the kissing turned more meaningful.

They had both had other opportunities to love; it was true. But from the start and in the end, they were the only ones who mattered to each other.

 


End file.
